I've had a bit of a craving for madeira cake for quite a while now. Every so often while grocery shopping in my local Tesco I would oh so casually find myself in the aisle that stocked cakes, so how could I not wander over to the madeira cake and gaze slightly longingly at it just sitting there, looking so deliciously moist and dense and sweet? I always somehow managed to resist the temptation to buy it though. Even with J on numerous occasions catching me red-handed and then exclaiming "why don't you just buy it??". I think it helped that I expected that one day, I would be able to satisfy my craving on my own and not have to rely on the supermarket version full of unwanted preservatives and other unknown substances. It is a little strange that I have been craving madeira cake at all, given that I despise butter on its own, but stranger things have happened.
Since my failed attempt a few months ago I was beginning to wonder if it was actually possible for me to bake a satisfactory madeira cake, especially since most madeira cake recipes online talked about adding lemon. I decided that this was a big no no - if I want a lemon cake, I'll make my own lemony lemon cake. So then I thought that maybe I should be looking for pound cake recipes. I was going to try Martha Stewart's recipe, but I had buttermilk to use and I figured could find a recipe that used buttermilk. I settled on this, and decided to make just half the quantity. But while I was halfway through measuring all the ingredients (having already put the sugar and butter in the bowl) I realised that I had halved the sugar, but not halved the butter. And then I realised that the recipe in its current proportions would most likely not have yielded me a moist, dense madeira cake at all! So I set about modifying it and hoping for the best. Surprisingly, the end result was a decent madeira cake - it actually tasted fantastic to me when I ate it freshly baked (but then what baked good freshly removed from an oven doesn't?). However when I ate it the next day, I found the taste of butter to be rather overpowering. But J assured me that it was perfect just the way it was, so here is the recipe.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
225g butter
1 3/4 cups caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla essence
Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between after each addition.
Mix in the vanilla essence
Gently mix in flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
I found this was enough mixture for 1 loaf tin (approx 9 x 11 inch) and 1 round 18 inch tin.
Bake for 40 minutes.
And something I discovered as a result of baking this cake, and the chocolate cake (not yet blogged) - buttermilk makes the tops of cakes very crusty.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
choc chip cookies - m&s style
The perfect cookie is very subjective - some like their cookies hard and crunchy, some like them soft and chewy, some like them thin and crispy, I'm sure there are many more variations. For me, the perfect cookie is soft and chewy and perhaps a bit sweeter than most normal people would prefer :). I think the best example would be the cookies you find at Millie's Cookies, and the best example of the perfect choc chip cookie would be the ones from the M&S bakery.
Last year, I decided I wanted to recreate the M&S choc chip cookie at home - how difficult could it be? Easier said than done. I think I tried 3 or 4 different recipes - one batch turned out thin and crispy. Another batch came out chewy but the mixture had spread out so much during baking so they were almost paper thin. After trawling through the internet I found this site which has some fascinating information about how to get the style of cookie you want. From here, I found the recipe for the perfect thick and chewy choc chip cookie.
Now, I baked the cookies following this recipe, and was very impressed with how close they came to the M&S perfection. My big mistake however was not noting down the method I used, because it seems as though I did not follow the recipe to the letter! As can be evidenced from my post here. Using soft brown sugar instead of golden caster sugar yielded me a cookie that was more cake-like, which is more of the Ben's Cookies style - not my preferred style of cookie (although I do know people who rave about Ben's).
So here is my recipe for producing choc chip cookies, that are *almost* as good as the ones you get from M&S.
Choc chip cookies
(makes about 24)
Ingredients
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda. Stir or beat into butter mixture until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop dough in 1-tablespoon portions, 2 inches apart, onto lined baking sheets.
Bake in the oven until cookies are lightly browned, for about 6 to 8 minutes.
With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool.
Last year, I decided I wanted to recreate the M&S choc chip cookie at home - how difficult could it be? Easier said than done. I think I tried 3 or 4 different recipes - one batch turned out thin and crispy. Another batch came out chewy but the mixture had spread out so much during baking so they were almost paper thin. After trawling through the internet I found this site which has some fascinating information about how to get the style of cookie you want. From here, I found the recipe for the perfect thick and chewy choc chip cookie.
Now, I baked the cookies following this recipe, and was very impressed with how close they came to the M&S perfection. My big mistake however was not noting down the method I used, because it seems as though I did not follow the recipe to the letter! As can be evidenced from my post here. Using soft brown sugar instead of golden caster sugar yielded me a cookie that was more cake-like, which is more of the Ben's Cookies style - not my preferred style of cookie (although I do know people who rave about Ben's).
So here is my recipe for producing choc chip cookies, that are *almost* as good as the ones you get from M&S.
Choc chip cookies
(makes about 24)
Ingredients
- 125g butter
- 3/4 cups golden caster sugar
- 1 large egg (I may toy with using a medium egg next tim)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup choc chips
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda. Stir or beat into butter mixture until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop dough in 1-tablespoon portions, 2 inches apart, onto lined baking sheets.
Bake in the oven until cookies are lightly browned, for about 6 to 8 minutes.
With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
banana cake
I have been very quiet of late. This is mostly because I put myself on a baking hiatus, after realising that my dedicated visits to the gym were not making much of a dent in my expanding waistline. And when you stop baking, you lose interest in blogging about it. However, I have started running again (fingers crossed I can keep running), and so I am very tentatively emerging from my self-imposed hibernation.
A group of us at work have been celebrating our birthdays by organising a cake and card for the happy birthday girl (or guy). So we've only had 2 so far, but I'm sure it will continue! I missed out on the first one, due to being insanely ill, but for the second one, one of the girls asked if I'd be able to buy the cake. Now, why buy a cake when you can bake one...? :)
We'd already had chocolate cake, and while another girl and I knew Sarah would love a carrot cake, I figured that after already having force fed the girls two different types of carrot cake, that I should probably not go for it a third time. So I decided on a deliciously moist banana cake with white chocolate frosting instead, which I found here.
You'll notice in my photo below that I also made my first attempt at cake writing :) Not a bad first attempt, ignoring the fact that I had fully intended to write 'happy birthday Sarah' and not 'Sarah happy bday'... Anyway, the photo was actually taken before I smudged some of the letters while trying to make space for the cake in the fridge, so if any of the girls are reading this that would explain why it may not look *exactly* how you remember it :)
Ingredients
2 very ripe bananas (of large-ish size)
125 ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
170g caster sugar (or soft brown sugar)
125ml vegetable oil
200g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Method
1. Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
3. Sift together the flour, salt and leavening.
4. Mash the bananas and mix in the sour cream and eggs, with electric hand beaters.
5. When the mixture is smooth, beat in the oil and sugar. Then add the dry ingredients and beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
6. Pour the mixture into the pan, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the cake tests done.
7. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a wire rack.
8. Frost.
And for the white chocolate cream cheese frosting...
Ingredients
200g full fat cream cheese
200g white chocolate
Method
1. Melt the chocolate and cool slightly.
2. Stir in the cream cheese.
(for the letters I made a cone out of baking paper, cut a hole in the tip of the cone, melted some dark chocolate, added some icing sugar, spooned some of the chocolate into the cone, and hoped for the best!)
A group of us at work have been celebrating our birthdays by organising a cake and card for the happy birthday girl (or guy). So we've only had 2 so far, but I'm sure it will continue! I missed out on the first one, due to being insanely ill, but for the second one, one of the girls asked if I'd be able to buy the cake. Now, why buy a cake when you can bake one...? :)
We'd already had chocolate cake, and while another girl and I knew Sarah would love a carrot cake, I figured that after already having force fed the girls two different types of carrot cake, that I should probably not go for it a third time. So I decided on a deliciously moist banana cake with white chocolate frosting instead, which I found here.
You'll notice in my photo below that I also made my first attempt at cake writing :) Not a bad first attempt, ignoring the fact that I had fully intended to write 'happy birthday Sarah' and not 'Sarah happy bday'... Anyway, the photo was actually taken before I smudged some of the letters while trying to make space for the cake in the fridge, so if any of the girls are reading this that would explain why it may not look *exactly* how you remember it :)
Ingredients
2 very ripe bananas (of large-ish size)
125 ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
170g caster sugar (or soft brown sugar)
125ml vegetable oil
200g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Method
1. Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
3. Sift together the flour, salt and leavening.
4. Mash the bananas and mix in the sour cream and eggs, with electric hand beaters.
5. When the mixture is smooth, beat in the oil and sugar. Then add the dry ingredients and beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
6. Pour the mixture into the pan, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the cake tests done.
7. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a wire rack.
8. Frost.
And for the white chocolate cream cheese frosting...
Ingredients
200g full fat cream cheese
200g white chocolate
Method
1. Melt the chocolate and cool slightly.
2. Stir in the cream cheese.
(for the letters I made a cone out of baking paper, cut a hole in the tip of the cone, melted some dark chocolate, added some icing sugar, spooned some of the chocolate into the cone, and hoped for the best!)
Friday, 28 January 2011
lamingtons!
So, of course I'll take any excuse to bake. It was Australia day a few days ago (the 26th to be exact) and I decided to try lamingtons this year. I thought I'd make enough for me and hubby to bring to our respective workplaces, which meant I'd be allowed to make one batch of sponge-cake-based lamingtons, and one batch of madeira-cake-based lamingtons, right? :) In truth, that was just an excuse for me to also try baking madeira cake too... and it didn't quite go according to plan, as it turned out that one sponge cake produced enough lamingtons for both me and hubby, and the madeira cake recipe I eventually decided on ended up being a fake lemon cake. But the sponge cake lamingtons turned out well enough, and we will conveniently forget about attempting the madeira cake (although I think I will keep searching for the elusive perfect madeira cake recipe...)
I found my recipe for the sponge cake base here (the latest amazing food blog I've stumbled upon - love the photography and recipes here), which I've reproduced below:
For the sponge cake
Ingredients:
3 large eggs
190g butter, room temperature
190g granulated white sugar
160g plain flour, sifted
40g potato starch, or corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbinate of soda
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 22.5cm square cake tin with butter.
The original recipe says:
In a large bowl, mix everything together on a slow speed with an electric hand mixer, until combined.
I didn't actually believe mixing everything together would work for me, even though the pictures in the blog told me it would! So I mixed the butter and sugar together until combined, then added the eggs, then the remaining ingredients.
When combined, transfer the mixture to the tin. Smooth the top and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, and then turn out onto a wrack. When cool slice as needed.
For the chocolate coconut coating, I adapted the recipe from here.
Ingredients:
20g butter
400g icing sugar
200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
120ml milk
about 300g desiccated coconut
Method:
Put the coconut into a shallow dish.
Put the icing sugar, dark chocolate, butter and milk in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir constantly until melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the pan of hot water so the mixture stays liquid.
Dip each piece of sponge into the chocolate mixture so that it is covered in chocolate. I found the best way to do this is to plop the sponge into the bowl with your fingers, use a large spoon to turn the sponge piece around to ensure it's completely coated, and then use a fork to scoop out the piece (not pierce it) so the excess chocolate drips off, before placing (or in my case dropping) the chocolate coated piece of cake into the coconut. But you can use whatever method works best for you. The end result will always be a mess of coconut and chocolate and cake crumbs, as well as lamingtons :)
Gently toss in the coconut so it is completely covered.
Place the lamingtons on a plate until completely set.
I found my recipe for the sponge cake base here (the latest amazing food blog I've stumbled upon - love the photography and recipes here), which I've reproduced below:
For the sponge cake
Ingredients:
3 large eggs
190g butter, room temperature
190g granulated white sugar
160g plain flour, sifted
40g potato starch, or corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbinate of soda
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 22.5cm square cake tin with butter.
The original recipe says:
In a large bowl, mix everything together on a slow speed with an electric hand mixer, until combined.
I didn't actually believe mixing everything together would work for me, even though the pictures in the blog told me it would! So I mixed the butter and sugar together until combined, then added the eggs, then the remaining ingredients.
When combined, transfer the mixture to the tin. Smooth the top and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, and then turn out onto a wrack. When cool slice as needed.
For the chocolate coconut coating, I adapted the recipe from here.
Ingredients:
20g butter
400g icing sugar
200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
120ml milk
about 300g desiccated coconut
Method:
Put the coconut into a shallow dish.
Put the icing sugar, dark chocolate, butter and milk in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir constantly until melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the pan of hot water so the mixture stays liquid.
Dip each piece of sponge into the chocolate mixture so that it is covered in chocolate. I found the best way to do this is to plop the sponge into the bowl with your fingers, use a large spoon to turn the sponge piece around to ensure it's completely coated, and then use a fork to scoop out the piece (not pierce it) so the excess chocolate drips off, before placing (or in my case dropping) the chocolate coated piece of cake into the coconut. But you can use whatever method works best for you. The end result will always be a mess of coconut and chocolate and cake crumbs, as well as lamingtons :)
Gently toss in the coconut so it is completely covered.
Place the lamingtons on a plate until completely set.
lamingtons of a less guilty size
lamingtons of a more photogenic size
Saturday, 22 January 2011
hmmm
So J's last day at UBS was yesterday. When I finished up at my last place, I received a card full of baking references, and even my farewell gift was baking/cooking related. This was to be expected. J received a farewell card yesterday, and surprisingly this card also contained references to baked goods... I would never have thought that I could make it into someone else's farewell card! (even if I happen to be married to that someone else)
Friday, 14 January 2011
perfect mulled wine
Don't worry - this will be the last Christmas post for a while. Well, until December (if I can keep this blogging up until then).
I've used Delia's mulled wine recipe in the past - with Delia you usually can't go too wrong. I grew up watching a variety of cooking shows, which included an awful lot of Delia so I've grown attached to her. But I happened to stumble upon The Guardian's 'how to make perfect...' series in December, which included mulled wine and it looked very enticing. I gave the recipe a go, and it unfortunately beats Delia's recipe hands down (sorry Delia!).
You'll see the recipe in The Guardian includes cardamom pods - I thought this would be a little too weird for mulled wine, so have left it out in my version below.
Ingredients
Peel and juice 1 orange, and add to a large saucepan along with the lemon peel, sugar and spices. Add enough wine to just cover the sugar, and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, stirring occasionally. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 – 8 minutes until you have a thick syrup.
Turn the heat down, and pour the rest of the wine into the saucepan. Gently heat through and serve. You can use orange segments studded with cloves as garnish.
I've used Delia's mulled wine recipe in the past - with Delia you usually can't go too wrong. I grew up watching a variety of cooking shows, which included an awful lot of Delia so I've grown attached to her. But I happened to stumble upon The Guardian's 'how to make perfect...' series in December, which included mulled wine and it looked very enticing. I gave the recipe a go, and it unfortunately beats Delia's recipe hands down (sorry Delia!).
You'll see the recipe in The Guardian includes cardamom pods - I thought this would be a little too weird for mulled wine, so have left it out in my version below.
Ingredients
- 1 orange
- 1 lemon, peel only
- 75g caster sugar
- 5 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 bottle fruity, unoaked red wine
Peel and juice 1 orange, and add to a large saucepan along with the lemon peel, sugar and spices. Add enough wine to just cover the sugar, and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, stirring occasionally. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 – 8 minutes until you have a thick syrup.
Turn the heat down, and pour the rest of the wine into the saucepan. Gently heat through and serve. You can use orange segments studded with cloves as garnish.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
perfect mince pies
Most people would blog about Christmas in the lead up to Christmas. But I can't wait 11 months to post my mince pie recipe, and it's not yet a month from Christmas, so I figure it's not too ridiculous a notion to post it now.
I first made mince pies the year before last, our 3rd Christmas here, using Delia Smith's recipe for the mincemeat filling and pastry. Don't worry - I don't put actual meat in my mincemeat and I only use vegetarian suet (although I have toyed with the idea of using beef suet...). The mincemeat filling was perfect, but while the pastry was surprisingly easy to make it didn't have that 'wow' factor - the amazing mincemeat was being let down by the average pastry, which I wanted to be sweeter and crumbly, instead of dry and flaky.
Last year, I wasn't intending to make mince pies at all. Something to do with feeling lazy. But then my brother-in-law left us some mini mince pies that looked very cute and delicious. The pastry lived up to expectations, but the filling was pretty awful. After that disappointing experience, I kept thinking I must be able to make mince pies better than that. I already knew I had a killer mincemeat recipe, so surely I would be able to find the perfect mince pie pastry recipe?
After trawling through the internet, I decided on a recipe that looked promising and gave it a go. The result after the first attempt was what can only be described as shortbread filled with mincemeat! Pretty much a mince pie :) The reason why the pastry turned out more like shortbread was because I didn't believe the pastry would hold as I was pressing the dough into the muffin tins so I left it rather thick, and I didn't want the mince to burst through the pastry so I only filled it about 2/3 full - this resulted in more pastry than filling. Delicious though. I still had 3 jars of mincemeat left so made a larger 2nd batch a few days later with 2 jars, this time pressing out the dough to be quite thin and being more generous with the mincemeat. The result? The perfect mince pie... :) Just the right thickness of pastry with just the right amount of filling. With my final jar/batch I added slightly too much butter to the pastry and I think this caused the pastry to be a little difficult to press into the tins. I also pressed out the pastry too thin so the mince pies came out a little fragile... (at least I know now how far the pastry will let me take it!) But despite all that, the mince pies from the 3rd batch still satisfied my (or perhaps even anyone's? :) mince pie craving.
In my search for a pastry recipe, I also found many promising alternative recipes for mincemeat, but I figure why change when I know that what I have works? So below is the recipe for the mincemeat (from Delia Smith's Christmas) and the recipe for the pastry, which is reproduced below with some editing, was found here. (Note that I've halved the quantities for both recipes - if I left them as the original quantities I'd be drowning in mince pie heaven!)
Mincemeat
Ingredients
Combine all the ingredients except for the brandy in a large mixing bowl.
Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave the mixture in a cool place overnight or for 12 hours, so the flavours have a chance to mingle and develop.
After that pre-heat the oven to 120 degrees Celsius, transfer the mix to a tin (I use a cake tin), cover loosely with foil and place it in the oven for 3 hours.
Remove from the oven. As it cools stir from time to time; the fat will coagulate and instead of it being in tiny shreds it will encase all the other ingredients. When the mincemeat is cold stir in the brandy.
Pack in clean dry jars, cover with wax discs and seal. It will keep in a cool, dark cupboard indefinitely (but probably best to eat within a year).
Mince Pie Pastry
Makes about 10 mince pies
Ingredients
To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour, then mix in the sugar and a pinch of salt.
Combine the pastry into a ball - don't add liquid - and knead it briefly. The dough will be fairly firm, like shortbread dough. You can use the dough immediately, or chill for later.
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C. Line about 10 holes of a 12-hole muffin tin, by pressing small walnut-sized balls of pastry into each hole. Spoon the mincemeat into the pies. (Don't worry about greasing the muffin tin as I think the butter from the pastry will prevent the pies from sticking. Also you only need to make sure they come up about halfway to 2/3 of the way up the muffin tin.)
Take slightly smaller balls of pastry than before and pat them out between your hands to make round lids, big enough to cover the pies. Top the pies with their lids, pressing the edges gently together to seal - you don't need to seal them with milk or egg as they will stick on their own. (The pies may now be frozen for up to 1 month).
Optional - brush the tops of the pies with the beaten egg.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden.
Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. To serve, lightly dust with icing sugar.
They will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.
I first made mince pies the year before last, our 3rd Christmas here, using Delia Smith's recipe for the mincemeat filling and pastry. Don't worry - I don't put actual meat in my mincemeat and I only use vegetarian suet (although I have toyed with the idea of using beef suet...). The mincemeat filling was perfect, but while the pastry was surprisingly easy to make it didn't have that 'wow' factor - the amazing mincemeat was being let down by the average pastry, which I wanted to be sweeter and crumbly, instead of dry and flaky.
Last year, I wasn't intending to make mince pies at all. Something to do with feeling lazy. But then my brother-in-law left us some mini mince pies that looked very cute and delicious. The pastry lived up to expectations, but the filling was pretty awful. After that disappointing experience, I kept thinking I must be able to make mince pies better than that. I already knew I had a killer mincemeat recipe, so surely I would be able to find the perfect mince pie pastry recipe?
After trawling through the internet, I decided on a recipe that looked promising and gave it a go. The result after the first attempt was what can only be described as shortbread filled with mincemeat! Pretty much a mince pie :) The reason why the pastry turned out more like shortbread was because I didn't believe the pastry would hold as I was pressing the dough into the muffin tins so I left it rather thick, and I didn't want the mince to burst through the pastry so I only filled it about 2/3 full - this resulted in more pastry than filling. Delicious though. I still had 3 jars of mincemeat left so made a larger 2nd batch a few days later with 2 jars, this time pressing out the dough to be quite thin and being more generous with the mincemeat. The result? The perfect mince pie... :) Just the right thickness of pastry with just the right amount of filling. With my final jar/batch I added slightly too much butter to the pastry and I think this caused the pastry to be a little difficult to press into the tins. I also pressed out the pastry too thin so the mince pies came out a little fragile... (at least I know now how far the pastry will let me take it!) But despite all that, the mince pies from the 3rd batch still satisfied my (or perhaps even anyone's? :) mince pie craving.
In my search for a pastry recipe, I also found many promising alternative recipes for mincemeat, but I figure why change when I know that what I have works? So below is the recipe for the mincemeat (from Delia Smith's Christmas) and the recipe for the pastry, which is reproduced below with some editing, was found here. (Note that I've halved the quantities for both recipes - if I left them as the original quantities I'd be drowning in mince pie heaven!)
Mincemeat
Ingredients
- 225g Bramley apples, cored and chopped small (no need to peel)
- 110g shredded suet (I think the expensive organic suet from Wholefoods actually results in more superior mincemeat than when using Atora suet from Tesco...)
- 175g raisins
- 110g sultanas
- 110g currants
- 110g whole mixed candied peel
- 175g soft dark brown sugar
- zest and juice of 1 orange
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 25g whole almonds cut into slivers
- 2 teaspoons mixed ground spice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- nutmeg, grated
- 3 tablespoons brandy
Combine all the ingredients except for the brandy in a large mixing bowl.
Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave the mixture in a cool place overnight or for 12 hours, so the flavours have a chance to mingle and develop.
After that pre-heat the oven to 120 degrees Celsius, transfer the mix to a tin (I use a cake tin), cover loosely with foil and place it in the oven for 3 hours.
Remove from the oven. As it cools stir from time to time; the fat will coagulate and instead of it being in tiny shreds it will encase all the other ingredients. When the mincemeat is cold stir in the brandy.
Pack in clean dry jars, cover with wax discs and seal. It will keep in a cool, dark cupboard indefinitely (but probably best to eat within a year).
Mince Pie Pastry
Makes about 10 mince pies
Ingredients
- 110 cold butter, diced
- 175g plain flour
- 50g golden caster sugar
- 1 jar mincemeat (my jars are of the chilli bean sauce or black bean garlic sauce variety :)
- 1 small egg, beaten (optional)
- icing sugar, to dust
To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour, then mix in the sugar and a pinch of salt.
Combine the pastry into a ball - don't add liquid - and knead it briefly. The dough will be fairly firm, like shortbread dough. You can use the dough immediately, or chill for later.
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C. Line about 10 holes of a 12-hole muffin tin, by pressing small walnut-sized balls of pastry into each hole. Spoon the mincemeat into the pies. (Don't worry about greasing the muffin tin as I think the butter from the pastry will prevent the pies from sticking. Also you only need to make sure they come up about halfway to 2/3 of the way up the muffin tin.)
Take slightly smaller balls of pastry than before and pat them out between your hands to make round lids, big enough to cover the pies. Top the pies with their lids, pressing the edges gently together to seal - you don't need to seal them with milk or egg as they will stick on their own. (The pies may now be frozen for up to 1 month).
Optional - brush the tops of the pies with the beaten egg.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden.
Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. To serve, lightly dust with icing sugar.
They will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.
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